Bethel Music's Brandon Lake says all should make home a place where God dwells
Award-winning singer, songwriter and worship leader Brandon Lake released his Bethel Music solo debut House Of Miracles last month, an album the artist says is for such a time as this as he encourages listeners to host the presence of God.
Lake joined Bethel Music some time ago and was part of the group's bestselling release in May, Revival’s In The Air. His debut album, House Of Miracles follows suit.
Produced by David Leonard (All Sons & Daughters), Jacob Sooter (Meredith Andrews) and LaeL (Cory Asbury), the 12 songs on the album were co-penned by Lake. Other writers featured on the album include award-winning Christian artist Matt Maher, Pat Barrett, Ben Hastings of Hillsong UNITED; Bethel Music’s Dante Bowe; and Elevation Worship’s Steven Furtick and Chris Brown, among others.
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With collaborations from Tasha Cobbs Leonard and Sarah Reeves, House Of Miracles is a collection of songs that call forth the worshipers inside all who listen to the album.
Lake is a worship pastor at Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, his hometown, and his new music is already climbing the charts.
The following is an edited transcript of Lakes interview with The Christian Post where he describes the inspiration and heart behind his solo debut.
CP: What inspired you to name your debut album House of Miracles?
Lake: What's cool is this song "House of Miracles" came pretty late in the process for the record. We had picked out most of the songs but there was this thing that God just put on me and my wife's heart.
I've been married for almost 10 years now and I've got two little boys, so we've got a pretty full house. Not that we have too many kids, but those two make them pretty full. They are crazy. It is more so a house of madness most of the time. But God gave us this dream, where we felt like He was calling us, for our house and our ministry, to be a place where we have couples come through. People who are burned out on ministry or who just desperately need some loving and who just need some encouragement and they need their arms held up for them. They're weak and they're burned out.
So we began to dream about this and then God gave me this language, woke me up in the middle of the night, with some language I started writing down in my phone. I thought maybe this is a song, I don't know.
Then fast forward we're working on the record, we're doing pre-production, and we're supposed to be working on a different song that day. Me and one of my producers, Jacob Sooter, we felt God was like, "Don't work on this song today." We felt led to write something. I was like, "I have a song out called 'This is a Move,' and it talks about miracles." And I'm like, "Man, I feel like the one thing that's missing on my record is this song about miracles."
Miracles have played the biggest role in my life in the past few years. I feel like it would be amiss if we didn't have a song that was prophesying on how God is still working in miracles. I go back to my Airbnb and then, it hit me, the title of this track: "House of miracles." So I come back to the studio, we end up writing this song. I knew the title of the song before we even wrote it. I even thought, when God gave it to us, this might be the title of the record, because this is what I believe God is calling my family too. Not just for this record to be about a house of miracles, but I believe it's the thing God's calling our family to be — a hosting place for the presence of God.
I want this record to be a house to encompass the miraculous. We actually moved about two months ago into a new house, so a literal house of miracles. We actually moved into a house where there's a little guest apartment that's detached from the house because it's going to be our ministry. And we have couples come through and we pray that they would encounter a house of miracles. So that's kind of the heart behind the record.
CP: With churches still facing COVID-19 restrictions, Christians have been forced to have their spiritual experiences in their homes. Bethel Music is known for cultivating that move of God, so for someone who doesn't know what to do to experience God's presence apart from a corporate church setting, how can they invite God’s presence into their homes?
Lake: There's this facade, this idea that we're living up in the clouds with Jesus and the truth is, "No, I'm not!" My life looks like trying to keep my kids from killing each other. And just trying to keep my house somewhat in order, just trying to be a good husband and trying to be a good dad. I think God delights in those things as much as spending an hour on my knees by myself in prayer. Not that that's bad. That's amazing. There are times for that, but there's also times to just be a really great dad.
What I would say is, what we've realized is having a great family life and home life, and being healthy and loving one another, and putting each other first is probably one of the most glorifying things to God. I think that creates ... that ushers in the presence of God so that when you come to encounter my home, it feels like a house of peace. It feels like a house of joy. You can feel the Spirit of God because He's always invited. I think He dwells in a healthy house. So that's our goal is just to make sure that we're loving each other well, and that's worship.
Worship is the songs I'm writing and the songs I'm singing. And it's going to church, if you can, or it's putting on church on your TV and singing with your family. But worship is also loving my kids well, and it's loving my wife well, and it's all those things. It's whatever we commit to the Lord. And so I just encourage anybody ... I think focusing on having a healthy house ushers in the presence of God.
There's times where we also prioritize talking to our kids. They're young; they're 5 and 3, but we prioritize talking to our kids about God. We're even learning in our own ways, like how do we teach them about the Holy Spirit? One of my songs, "I Need a Ghost," has been a fun way to teach them about the Holy Spirit. We're trying to figure it out ourselves. We definitely don't live in a cloud with Jesus, but I think when people come over they experience a Christ-centered home. Because it's healthy, you can, I think, feel the presence of God here because we put each other first and we put Christ above all.
CP: Our country is hurting socially, politically, and there's so much division. Even Christianity has been tied to politics or things of this world. What do you think this means for us who are trying to have this "house of America" be a house of miracles in God?
Lake: I think the darker it gets, the better opportunity for the light to shine. So a part of me is very saddened and burdened by what's going on. So when I say this, I don't mean "Yay, like, get darker." But I will say it's waking people up, it's kind of forcing people to choose the dark or the light. It's forcing people to cling to hope.
I think more and more people are going to find that you can't find hope in anything else but Jesus. In a way, I think this is the best opportunity that the church has ever had to be the church. It's putting it back on the home like we were just saying. That's why we're getting ready for our home to just be as valuable as our church down the road. And my house might be as valuable, if not more valuable, as a hosting place than the actual church down the road because we can't [gather there], or more people are turned off by that or whatever.
Honestly, we have the best opportunity right now, as sons and daughters, children of God, to actually be the Church than ever before. We might not be able to gather in the thousands, but if I were to focus on my neighborhood — which I'm guilty, I need to do a better job of that — if people were actually just focused on the few people they're kind of allowed to be around, we would actually see the church multiply and grow rapidly.
It does seem really dark and it seems like such a crazy season, but I think the light is shining brighter than ever. Do not buy into the lie. If all you're consuming is social media, the only thing that's being glorified is the dark. I think that's a really scary place to be if that's the only thing you're getting fed by.
My home church, Seacoast, we've been reaching more people online than we ever have before. Elevation, a church that I collaborate with, they're reaching millions of people every week, and that was not a thing before it skyrocketed. And so the lie is that it's getting darker, it's getting darker, but at the same time, the truth is, it's getting lighter and people are getting saved and more and more people are actually being forced to find real hope, and that's Jesus.
CP: Can you speak to how it's been for you releasing an album in the middle of a global pandemic?
Lake: I'll tell you what, it forced us to get creative because about half of it I created before the pandemic, and then about half of it after. It actually produced some pretty cool stuff. So there were things that I had to send from my house to Nashville and only record on my phone. So if you hear the guitar at the beginning of "I Need a Ghost," it sounds like an electric guitar kind of chucking and it's actually my acoustic, I recorded on my iPhone and they tweaked it out.
I got the idea of recording my kids and having them scream at the top of the chorus of "House of Miracles." That wouldn't have been a thing had the pandemic not happened. We did some really wild things. Pandemic or not, this didn't necessarily dictate why we did this or not, but we put some really cool stuff in the tracks like crickets, and there's a lion roar in "Temple." There are so many cool things in and out.
One of the reasons why I'm not losing hope in this season is God gave us songs before the pandemic that we would need for it. That, in itself, is proof that God's not surprised, and He's giving us everything we need to get through it. Giving us "Grave Into Gardens" before this thing even happened is a sign. God was like, "You're gonna need songs like this."
When the pandemic happened and the church moved back into houses, "House of Miracles," what a more perfect time for that song? Where people are in the hospital, l saw this song being sung in hospitals across the world and that's still my prayer. It's been wild, but my perspective more than anything has been what an honor for God to choose me and use me for such a time as this.
I could look at it and be like, "Man, dang it. The record could have done this or I could have been touring or whatever." But honestly, I'm like, "What a season to be used by God, for such a time as this." He knew we would need these songs and for whatever reason, He chose to use me to just be a vessel to get them out. So honestly, I'm honored to put it out in the season.
CP: What's something that you're really hoping people get from listening to this record?
Lake: I just think, I want them to realize that they, too, can create a meeting place with God. If everybody were to focus on their area, and their sphere of influence around them, and speaking hope into hopeless situations and hopeless people — that might just be sharing this song or this record, or it might be baking cookies for your next-door neighbor with a note on it that says, Jesus loves them and is thinking about them.
Whatever it is, I just want people to just come alive. And I want the people who have come alive to help people who are dead come alive. And I think that that's what this record is about and what my heart is. My biggest prayer for this record is that it would help people come alive.
House Of Miraclesis now available.
